Kerry Pechter, Author at Retirement Income Journal

Articles by Author: Kerry Pechter

Editor and Publisher of Retirement Income Journal, Kerry Pechter is author of Annuities for Dummies (Wiley, 2008) and former editor of the SourceMedia publication, Annuity Market News/Retirement Income Reporter. He has been an annuity columnist for Senior Market Advisor, and his feature articles have appeared in The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Men's Health and many other national publications. From 1997 to 2006, he was a writer and editor supporting the Retirement Resource Center at The Vanguard Group. In 2009, he traveled to Taiwan and reported on the retirement industry there as a fellow of the National Press Foundation. A graduate of Kenyon College and recipient of a fellowship in creative writing at Indiana University, Pechter resides in Emmaus, PA, with his wife Lisa, the director of marketing and publicity for the Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival at DeSales University.

Falling discount rates hurt DB pensions at insurers: AM Best

By Kerry Pechter Thu, Apr 8, 2021

Only 184 insurance companies rated by AM Best had defined benefit plans at year-end 2019, compared with 257 in 2016, according to a new report. Aggregated insurance company unfunded...

Published April 8, 2021

Raising Revenue–and Consciousness

By Kerry Pechter

With his Made in America Tax Plan, announced Wednesday, President Biden would raise corporate tax rates and try to stop transfer pricing worldwide. He wants to raise revenue and...

Published April 8, 2021

What’s Cooking at ‘Income Lab’?

By Kerry Pechter

At their software start-up, Income Lab, three former Jackson National Life executives want to help advisers help clients optimize retirement income. They enter a financial planning field dominated...

Published April 8, 2021

Security Benefit Life’s Secret Sauce

By Kerry Pechter Thu, Apr 1, 2021

Joe Wittrock, CIO at Security Benefit Life, explains how the firm's investments outperform. Eldridge Industries, run by ex-Guggenheim president Todd Boehly, owns SBL, Billboard magazine (right, with Billie Eilish...

Published April 1, 2021

Research Roundup

By Kerry Pechter Thu, Mar 25, 2021

Here's new research on tax avoidance among the very rich, the logic that millionaires use when buying equities, considerations for plan sponsors when estimating income from 401(k) balances, and...

Published March 25, 2021

Of Politics and the Pension-Saving ‘Butch Lewis Act’

By Kerry Pechter

If you empathize with retired truckers, coal miners and their unions, you'll love the American Rescue Act's $86 billion provision for patching up their underfunded pensions. Otherwise you might...

Published March 25, 2021

Social Security Repair Bills, Compared by Actuaries

By Kerry Pechter Thu, Mar 18, 2021

In a webinar this week, a panel of Academy actuaries presented their analysis of three legislative proposals now floating inside the Beltway. One raises taxes, one lowers benefits, and...

Published March 18, 2021

Stimulus Money and Mobius Strips

By Kerry Pechter

Our financial system doesn't crash because the banks accommodate the Treasury's liquidity needs and the Fed accommodates the banks' liquidity needs. It works kind of like a Mobius strip.

Published March 18, 2021

How Biden Might Pay for Expenditures

By Kerry Pechter Thu, Mar 11, 2021

Having appropriated $1.9 trillion for pandemic recovery, and with more big ideas in store, the Democrats will be looking to balance their largesse with new revenue. If you're among...

Published March 11, 2021

Pandemic Hurt Annuity Sales in 2020

By Kerry Pechter Wed, Mar 10, 2021

Annuity sales were buoyed in 2020 by a spike in purchases of registered index-linked annuities (up 38%) and fixed annuities (up 10%). Income annuity sales are north of $10...

Published March 11, 2021

‘Income America’ Offers ‘5ForLife’

By Kerry Pechter Thu, Mar 4, 2021

'Our clients are so past proprietary solutions,” said Scott Colangelo, who brought Lincoln Financial, Nationwide, American Century funds, Vanguard, Fidelity and others together to create Income America 5ForLife, an...

Published March 4, 2021

Beware the ‘Specialized’ ETFs

By Kerry Pechter Thu, Feb 25, 2021

In this month's Research Roundup, RIJ shares four recent academic papers on the proliferation of ETFs, the danger (or not) of national debt, rational inflation expectations, and the impact...

Published February 25, 2021

‘Bermuda Triangle’ Deal for Principal Financial?

By Kerry Pechter

Principal Financial Group, Elliott Investment Management, and Prosperity Life (majority owned by Elliott) may be headed for the same type of 'capital liberating' reinsurance deal that so many other...

Published February 25, 2021

Jackson National Puts Its Future in Veteran Hands

By Kerry Pechter Thu, Feb 18, 2021

Laura Prieskorn (left) and Marcia Wadsten are the new CEO and CFO of Jackson National Life. The leading seller of variable annuities in the US is in the process...

Published February 18, 2021

The Southwest Book Trader Contemplates Retirement

By Kerry Pechter

George Hassan, owner of Southwest Book Trader in Durango, Colorado, told me about his confrontation with Hunter S. Thompson, and about his bouts of CRS and CSS.

Published February 18, 2021

Which ‘Dependency Ratio’ Should We Use?

By Kerry Pechter Thu, Feb 11, 2021

Economists typically use the 'aged dependency ratio' to show the burden of the Social Security program on workers. But the 'total dependency ratio' might be more informative. (Photo by...

Published February 11, 2021

Who Stormed the Capitol? Future Retirees

By Kerry Pechter

Everyone at the Capitol on Jan. 6 will be a retiree. To understand their anger, and its implications, I attended a Brookings Institution webcast this week on 'rage and...

Published February 11, 2021

Boola-Boola, Retirement Moolah

By Kerry Pechter Thu, Feb 4, 2021

Yale's $7 billion 403(b) plan offers TIAA's RetirePlus Pro target-date solution to its 27,000 active and retired participants. The portfolios use Vanguard and TIAA CREF funds, and a liquid...

Published February 4, 2021

Groundhog Day (Again) in D.C.

By Kerry Pechter

Last Tuesday was Groundhog Day. The event reminded me of the Bill Murray movie, which reminded me of Washington, D.C., where our legislators seem happy to take the same...

Published February 4, 2021

How to Solve the World’s Retirement Crisis

By Kerry Pechter Thu, Jan 28, 2021

Retrofitting 401(k) plans with lifetime income options is one of the thorniest challenges of our time. We describe three possible solutions to that puzzle, from Nobelist Robert Merton and...

Published January 28, 2021

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